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QffllNIOrPAL EMOTIONS.
NORTH ADEliAIDE.
?;A public meeting was held in the North
Adtlaidelnatitute Hall on Monday evening,
for the purposeof hearing the views of Mr.
J. W. Davis, who is a-»ndidate for the Dosi
tion or aiaerman. Mr. JS. S. Wiggpresided.
All candidates -were invited to attend, and
Councillors Green, Holland, Mildred, and ex
Alderman Tomkinson accepted the invitation.
The Chajrhah said he was not there as the
advocate of any one of the candidates, Ma
vote being as free as that of any one in the
xoom. (Hear, hear.) He thought it was time
thatsome change in the present representa
tion was made, as things had not been alto
gether satisfactory, . Money had been
expended during the past year which
ought to have, been expended years
ago, when much less would have been needed,
Mr. Davis offered to allow the present re
presentative to address the meeting first,
but the meeting decided to hear him. He
observed that the first question they had to
look in the face was a financial one. The
city had a bonded debt of £81,000, an over
draft of over £13,0C0, an income for last year
of : £80,000 ; at the same time they ex
pended the sum of £85,000, or £15,000 more
daring & .period of ? great, depression.
Fortunately they had no heavy liabilities
in. contracts impending ? over the heads
of' 'the new CorDoration. He had
been told that he had no experience
in municipal matters, and ought not to stand
for Alderman before being a Councillor. This
was true, buk it was a case of fiobson'a choice
with him, as last year he had been asked by
a number of citizens to represent them as
Alderman. .. He had, then declined, but on
the present occasion he had again received a
similar requisition, and this time he came
forward in answer to it. (Hear, hear.) He
would ask them to consider for a moment the
bnrning question of the day— that of the fires
whibh were destroying bo much property in
the city, and which, in his opinion, were
caused by some one afflicted, with a mania.
He suggested the organization of a Vigilance
Committee at once with the object of finding
out the offender and preventing their pro
perty being destroyed in this horrible manner
in the future. He could not go to sleep with
out a fear that when he awoke his place of
business would be in ashes, and there must
be many in a similar position, He farther
suggested that the example set in New South
Wales, and he believed in Melbourne, should
be followed here, and that a watchman
ahould be stationed continually on the
highest point of the city, provided with
telescopes i and marine glasses, so that
the very .first indication of fire would be
discovered. .The watchman could be con
nected by electric bells and by telephone
with all the stations in the city. . Referring
to the question of gas, the speaker said that
dnring Mb recent travels in England and on
the Continent he had noticed that electricity
was being used to a rapidly increasing extent
everywhere, and he had no doubt that before
long it would he. need not. only in America
and Europe, but all over the world., Under
these circumstances he would support the
introduction of a Bill in the House of
Assembly enabling the Corporation to have
gasworks if they thought fit. If it was
necessary to borrow money to establish gas- '
works he would be in favour of doing
bo if it could, be done at a reasonable
rate.: Many : municipalities in England
nsed the electric light at the present
moment, the cost being a halfpenny per
hour per. lamp, or one-third less than the
present cost of gas. With regard to the
leasing of the .Central Market Acres, he had
not yet decided whether it would be better
to do this or borrow money to have them
built on, but he was rather in favour of the
former. In conclusion, he hoped that if
elected to serve them so he would be able to
earn the thanks of those who had returned
him. Mr. Tomkinson, who waa next called on,
said he was there that evening from his con
viction that they were top Mgnly taxed, and
he therefore wanted to get into the Council
in order to. do his best to reduce the ex
penditure.1 If the present rate continued
he would have to leave Adelaide, as his rents
were Bimply swamped. by Corporation and
Government rateB. . The Town Hall expendi
ture: was much greater: than it ought to be.
Their pnblic debt was. a very large sum, and
the overdraft was also considerable. He was
assured by Mr. Fuller that when he left the
Council there was no overdraft. (Councillor
Mildred— 'Oh yes there was. There was
£7,000.') Well, it had nearly doubled since.
He thought that the Corporation had no right
to expend large sums without the consent of
the citizens— (near, hear)— and the first thing
he would do if elected would be to send to
the Banks and decline all respon
sibility for the sums advanced by
them. He thought the Mayor was p_aid
too much, and the other municipal
officers were in the same position. The fact
was they were going on as if they had a
population as large as Melbourne or Sydney.
They were rated by Corporation and Govern
ment at nearly 3s. 6d. in the pound, while he
thought a shilling rate ought to cover a
health rate, a sanitary rate, and a lighting
rate. He disapproved of the mode in which
the water rate was levied, the city being
made to .pay for the water of the districts
outside. He disapproved also of the deep
drainage system, which he considered had
proved a failure. He disapproved of borrow
ing inioto for any purpose, and should
oppose Mr. Davis's scheme of boirowing
money for gasworks and new markets. He
was an interested party so far as gas was
concerned. (Laughter and ' We know- you
are.') He assured them that the Gas Com
pany Were as much alive to lowering
the price of gas as the consumers,
and : they would never get it lower
than it was by starting other Companies,
Councillor Mildbed observed that he was
clad of the present opportunity for address
ing the meeting, as it removed the necessity
of callinga. pnblic meeting in his own in
terest. He .thought the most important
question was the financial one. As a finan
cial man he denounced the# action of the
Finance Committee in paying the share
holders of the Town and Country Bank the
sum of £730 a year for interest which ought
instead to have been spent for the benefit of
the working men. (Hear, hear.) He had
some reputation in these matters, as he.had
served tne Governmentf or very many years in
a financial capacity with credit. If he was
returned and Became Chairman of the Finance
Committee, ashis friend and fellow-Councillor
Mr. Green hoped he would, he would see that
a' financial statement was presented to the
committee every fortnight showing the assets
and liabilities. At preBent this was not
done, and the members of the Finance Com
mittee knew no more than any one else how
matters stood. He agreed with the hist
speaker that the salary of the Mayor was
too high for such a small city, and he had
opposed the vote of £1,000 to the Mayor to
the utmost of his power. He was in a
minority of one on the motion making the
Mayor's allowance £750 instead of £1,000,
although Alderman Buik, who had occupied
the Mayor's chair, and therefore could not
vote when the motion came on, was also in
favour of the smaller sum. He had also
opposed the putting-np of the new Town
Hall Buildings just over the Dog Office,
right out of sight, for accommodation
which was not required, but wMch
would have coat the ratepayers £350 a year.
In July. 1883, dm ing the/Mayoralty of Mr.
Fuller, he had viewed with some alarm the
expenditure, and ventured to intimate that
they would end the year £6,000 in debt.
This idea was rejected, and the Register and
himself were laughed at ; but the year's end
told the tale that that view was right, as the
deficit balance was close upon £6,000. He
had always held that they spent more upon
.the Park Lands than their income justified.
He thought the grass ought to be mown,
stacked, and sold, and not cut and made into
hay at the expense of the Corporation and
then given away. Some revenue should be
derived from it, and more feeding down of
the grass should obtain than leaving it
for nay, the former being a far
more beneficial system to the sward,
more profitable and satisfactory, and with less
danger of fires. In referring to the question
of deep drainage, he stated that he Had sup
ported memorials to get an abatement of the
nuisance caused by the present system, and
when asked by the late Mayor for a remedy
he had replied that no system would answer
without ventilating shafts, and wherever
these had been erected since then they had,
he believed, proved a success. He took the
credit of having originated the idea that the
Government, when desired by the poorer
owners of property, should bear the cost of
connecting and charge a trifling extra rate,
and he was glad that this had ultimately been
adopted. (Hear,heai.) Anotherimprovement
he took a little credit to himself for was with
reference to the Building Act. Under that
Act they could not put up a f owlhouse. con
servatory, or woodshed in their backyard
without furnishing builder's plans in dupli
cate and paying to the Corporation a fee of
15s. 6d. This was such an arbitrary piece of
over-leGJslation that he interviewed the Chief
Secretary (Mr. Bray) on the subject, and got
the objectionable clause amended, provided
the proposed building to be erected did not
exceed 144 superficial feet. (Hear, hear.)
He had endeavoured to get the boat licences
on the Torrens Lake reduced, and pleasure
boats allowed free as on other waters of the
colony. The boat fees had been ultimately
reduced to 5s. per rowlock. Referring
to the Bilting of the lake, the speaker said he
had advocated the use of a small spoon-barge
as the only means of keeping a uniform
depth of four or five feet in the rowing
course. He was glad to inform them that
the City Surveyor was now building a spoon
barge to dredge, and he was informed the
dredgingB would go towards paying the
expense, .. . ; ;
?, At IpB stage the speaker was interrupted
by : the - audience, who declined to hear any
more^ The Chaibmah then explained thac'
aa the meeting had been called by Mr. Davis
it was hardly lair for Councillor Mildred to
occupy half the evening. Councillor MildbSd
said he would only state that he disapproved
of the abattoirs.
Councillor Green said he fully endorsed
the financial remarks made by the last
speaker. Daring the time he had been in
the Council he had done his best to promote
their best interests. He had had the gaa
laid along the Victoria-road, he had taken a
leading part in getting the overway bridge
constructed, and the roads, which were in a
disgraceful state three years ago. had been
immensely improved since he had repre
sented _Gawler Ward. He was opposed to
borrowing money for building a new market.
He was in favour of the abattoirs, on the
condition that the lower floors should be
refrigerating chambers, where the dead
nseat could be^ stored. He had long
been of opinion that in a climate
like this small cattle should be killed
in some oentral place outside the town. The
health of the city had occupied his attention
to a^large extent, and he was prepared to
say that the death-rate was now exceedingly
low, and the city_taken as a whole one of
the cleanest in the colonies. At present
their death-rate was less than the average
of twenty corporate towns. (Hear, hear.)
Every house had been registered for some
time past, and 9,000 ordera for removal of
offensive matter had been Berved. Among
the other things he had initiated was a
scheme for a reduction of the water fate.
He considered the city had been very un
fairly treated, as the citizens were charged
for the interest on over £100,000 of stock keDt
for the extension of the waterworks. He
was of opinion that Is.. per 1,000 would
be quite sufficient, to charge -the
citizens for water. (Hear, hear.) The
present city rate amounted to 2s., 7^3.
in the pound; but he thought if things were
properly managed the rates ought to be re
duced to Is. 6d. or Is. 6Jd. (Mr. Tomkinson
—?' A Bhilling rate iB quite enough.') Quite
enough *if they were content to do without
good roads &nd- without lights, but- not
enough if they wished to have the city pro
perly attended to. .'
interruption from all parts of the hall
remindea the speaker that ne had trespassed
on their time, and he accordingly gave place
to ? .
Mr. Holland, who at once proceeded to
denounce the excessive assessments. He waa
not one of those who thought that Is. in the
pound was enough to provide for the wants
of the citizens, but he did think some of their
rateB were excessive. The sanitary rate Was
toohigbforexample. Hehadppposed theParfc
LandB rate, and had been in the minority,
although his. friend Mr. Tomkinson, who
wanted to reduce their rates to Is., had been
one of the majority who had carried, the
rate againBt him. (Laughter.) He disap
provef of spending £6,000, as estimated, for
extending the Town Hall Building. The
refreshment-room had been estimated' to cost
a similar sain, but £10.000 had. been the ulti
mate expenditure, and this they would find
would be the case with the present estimate.
He pointed out, too, that the Council' had
the Exchange-rooms which they could utilize
if they wanted to do so, and It was a ;shame
to talk of going into tne large expenditure
alluded' to for the purpose or saving
a Bmall income. Referring to the' gas
question the speaker said he thought the
least the Parliament could do would be to
give the Corporation the privilege of saying
whether they would have gasworks or not.
He considered it very paltry of Parliament
to twit the Corporation with having squan
dered money as a reason for not allowing
them to have such a choice, as he felt- sure
that the Corporation had never squandered
money^as the Parliament had done. He did
not think they had any reason to be ashamed
of their overdraft at the Bank, as they had
been enabled to carry on very important
works, such as road-metalling, and had given
employnnnt to a large number of working
men thereby. (Applause.) '
Mr. Davis, who was called upon to reply,
said he had only one word to say, and that
was to point out that he had never expressed
himself arthorpughly in favour of borrow
ing money |or, the -completion of the Town
Hall Buildings,-, but had simply said 'that
there was a reason to believe that the sum of
£50 might be saved by such a policy. :
. The Chairman, before calling upon the
audience to put their questions to the candi
dates, Baid it was as mistaken a policy to
retrench too much as it was to spend too
much, and when he had been in the Council
the former policy had been carried out and
the roads had been left bare; At the present
moment he thought the condition of the
Treasurer's office was a disgrace to the city.
Questions were then tmt by the audience,
the first, which evoked a considerable
amount of merriment, being a3 to whether
the candidates were in favour of putting
down the nuisance of street bands
on Sundays. All the candidates replied
to the effect that they were in favour of
preventing the public being unnecessarily
annoyed by patrolling bands, whether they
belonged to religions bodies or any other.
Mr. Isbistek asked if the candidates were in
favour of placing the tramcars under the
same by-laws aa the cabs, bo aa not to allow
the overcrowding that now obtained, 'All
the candidates expressed themselves' in
favour of the tramcars being prevented from
overcrowding. Mr. Johnson asked if they
were in favour of having the city valuation
made once in three years instead of as at
present. This was also more or less agreed
to by the candidates^ one or tvro of whom
however, worded their answer in as vague
terms as possible, and expressed themselves
in favour of whatever method was the moat
advantageous fcr the citizens. In anBwer
to Mr. Joenson, all the candidates —
with the exception of Councillor Green,
who waB in favour of a penny rate
would abolish the Park Lands rate, and
make the Park Lands pay for themselves.
Another question which met with a similar
fate was whether the residents should have
the option of deciding whether they ahould
have their streets asphalted or not ? Coun
cillor Gbeen thought all the streets should
be asphalted, the other candidates expressing
themselves generally in favour of giving the
people a choice in the matter. A question
which caused a good deal of amusement,
owing to the position of one of the candi
dates (Mr. Tomkinson) in the Gas Company,
was whether they were in favour 01
enabling the Corporation to make their
own gas. All the candidates favoured
the proposition. Mr. Tomkinson, whose^
rising was greeted with laughter, said
he would not oppose any publicly expressed
wish on the part of the ratepayers to pur
chase the Gas Company's^workB at a reason
able Bum. Several other questions were
asked and answered, after wMch the different
candidates were formally proposed, the
Chairman announcing the vote to be in favour
of Mr. Davis. The second place was Beem
inply a tie between Councillors Holland and
Milared. A vote of thanks to the Chairman,,
on the motion of Mr. Davis, terminated the
proceedings.
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